Stanford Punishes Medical Professors for Giving Paid Speeches for Drug Companies

Stanford University has disciplined five medical-school faculty members for violating the school’s conflict-of-interest rules by giving paid promotional speeches for drug companies, ProPublica reports. A university spokesman declined to identify the faculty members or the sanctions taken against them but said the disciplinary steps were “significant.” The crackdown follows a ProPublica investigation that found teaching hospitals at Stanford and other universities lax in enforcing conflict-of-interest rules. Stanford, which has one of the nation’s strictest such policies, identified more than a dozen faculty members who were paid speakers, the report said.